“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.”

Abraham Maslow

Wonderful things happen from the inside out.

In Selling from the Heart fashion, let's breakdown this quote.

"One can choose to go back toward safety…"

This is the pull of the comfort zone, the safe route, the known script, the easy call, the recycled mannerisms. It's the voice that says, "Don’t risk it, stay in your lane. Just hit the minimum."

Selling From the Heart insight - Safety is seductive, especially in sales. It's easier to play it safe than to show up with raw authenticity. There’s no real growth in hiding, and certainly no trust. If you're showing up as a copy of everyone else, you're choosing safety over substance. You're hiding behind the script instead of speaking from the heart.

"...or forward toward growth."

Growth is uncomfortable. It means stepping into the unknown, saying the hard things, asking bold questions and admitting what you don't know. It's about embracing the risk that comes with authenticity.

Selling From the Heart insight - Growth isn't just about results, it's about who you become in pursuit of those results. It's choosing to be real instead of rehearsed. It's learning to lead conversations that matter, instead of managing deals that don’t. When you lean into growth, you begin to show up differently, and you know what? People feel that.

"Growth must be chosen again and again..."

Growth, it's not a one-time decision, it's a daily commitment. There will be setbacks, you'll want to retreat, you'll question yourself. And still, the choice will return, grow or stay the same?

Selling From the Heart insight - Authenticity is a discipline, a lifestyle. Every day, you must choose to bring your full, real self into your calls, meetings, emails, and with your clients.

You must choose to get uncomfortable for the sake of your own development and for the people you serve. You can’t be a one-time authentic. You must be consistent because consistency builds trust.

"...fear must be overcome again and again.”

Fear never fully leaves us. It changes our mindset. Imposter syndrome, fear of rejection, fear of not being enough, fear of failure. But every breakthrough lies just past it.

Selling From the Heart insight: The best salespeople, the ones with full pipelines and full hearts, don’t lack fear. They confront it with conviction. They don’t hide behind jargon, dashboards, or inflated bravado. They lean in and they ask for feedback. They say, “I don’t have all the answers, but I care enough to find them.”

Maslow’s quote is a mirror. Selling From the Heart is the invitation to stop looking for shortcuts and start showing up with soul.

You can’t scale what you won’t first own. You can’t lead others unless you're willing to lead yourself through fear, through doubt, through discomfort, over and over and over again.

Where in your career or client relationships are you choosing safety over growth?

The Mirror is Your Map

The sales world is driven by metrics, techniques, and tactics, often times; we miss the most powerful engine of growth, ourselves.

Many in sales seek the next hack, the latest tool, the secret script but overlook the mirror.

The mirror doesn't just reflect who you are, it shows you who you're becoming. The truth is simple; you can’t grow your impact if you’re unwilling to grow yourself.

The mirror never lies, only the person looking into the mirror lies.

Your sales results will never consistently outperform the person who’s leading it. Your sales results will never outpace the trust, authenticity, and discipline you bring to your clients and future clients.

Before you rework your personal sales playbook or revisit your prospecting strategy, stop and look in the mirror. That’s your real map.

The journey starts now, are you ready to continue?

Why Self-Growth Feels Uncomfortable but Why It’s Necessary

Self-growth doesn’t just demand courage, it demands a willingness to step into the mirror with no filters, no flattering angles, and no excuses.

Authenticity isn’t a tactic; it’s the byproduct of rigorous self-honesty.

Initially, that kind of honesty stings because it forces you to confront where you've been hiding behind masks of performance, charm, or excuses.

The temptation in sales and in life is to point to external forces when results stall. The market shifted, the economy tightened, the team didn’t execute. But the turning point for authentic growth is when you replace the question “Who’s to blame?” with “What part of this is mine to own?” That subtle shift in ownership is where transformation begins.

From there, trust-building follows a simple but profound truth that people buy you before they buy your solution.

The Trust Formula of Authentic Relationships, Meaningful Value, Inspirational Experience, and Disciplined Habits; only works if it’s built on an unshakable foundation of self-awareness.

If you haven’t done the work to confront your weaknesses, your authenticity will be a thin veneer. But when you’ve been through that refining fire, your presence carries weight. Your clients feel it. They trust you, not because you’re perfect, but because you’re real.

In this post-trust world era, where most are still hiding behind carefully curated personas, your willingness to be genuinely seen is what makes you unforgettable and worth doing business with.

Authentic Growth Begins with Inner Clarity

One foundational piece around Selling from the Heart is that you can’t build trust externally until you’ve built trust internally.

This requires clarity around:

• Who you are

• What you believe

• Why you do what you do

You can’t authentically earn the trust of others until you’ve earned your own.

This isn’t about polishing a pitch; it’s about aligning your internal compass. Without that alignment, your message will always feel off to the people you meet. But when your values, beliefs, and actions all line up, there’s a quiet power in your presence, a steadiness that can’t be faked.

The journey inward is ongoing. Markets will shift, challenges will surface, and circumstances will change. When you’ve built clarity at your core, you carry a constant anchor in a world of uncertainty, allowing you to show up with authenticity no matter what the outside throws your way.

Looking Inward Unlocks the Trust Formula

At the heart of Selling from the Heart lies a powerful concept, The Trust Formula.

AR (Authentic Relationships) MV (Meaningful Value) IE (Inspirational Experience) DH (Disciplined Habits)

Here’s the deal, none of these can flourish without deep personal reflection. You can’t form authentic relationships if you’re hiding behind a persona. You can’t offer meaningful value if you neglect your own learning and growth.

You can’t inspire others if your own well is dry. And disciplined habits? They don’t magically appear; they’re forged through an unshakable internal commitment to who you want to be and how you want to show up.

Each element of the Trust Formula is more than a sales tactic, it’s a mirror.

• Authentic Relationships ask, Am I showing up as my true self?

• Meaningful Value asks, Do I truly understand and care about others’ success?

• Inspirational Experience asks, Do people feel better, more confident, and more hopeful after being with me?

• Disciplined Habits ask, Am I consistently living out my intentions, even when it’s inconvenient?

If something’s missing in your external results, look inward first. The cracks you see out there often begin in the foundation in here.

When you do the inner work, the Trust Formula stops being a checklist and becomes your natural operating system, one that builds trust effortlessly and sustains it over time.

Are you leaving growth and profit on the table? Click here to learn more.

What’s at Stake if You Don’t Look Inside

Plain and simple, failure to reflect stunts your progress.

Without taking time to look inward, you risk becoming the empty suit, sharp on the outside but hollow on the inside.

Inauthenticity isn’t just unattractive, it’s toxic. It poisons relationships before they can even begin. It destroys trust, erodes confidence, and quietly drives potential clients straight into the arms of your competitors.

The problem is that surface-level success can mask deeper issues for a while. A polished presentation, a confident handshake, or a well-rehearsed pitch might earn a second meeting; but without substance, without a genuine connection, it all eventually crumbles.

Sales isn’t about a pitch. Leadership isn’t about a title. Growth isn’t about hustle. At their core, they’re all about trust and trust always starts with you.

It begins in the space where you examine your motives, align your actions with your values, and commit to showing up consistently as the best version of yourself.

When you do this, you stop trying to act credible and instead become credible. You stop chasing clients and start attracting them.

Personal Growth Leads to Professional Acceleration

Your income grows in proportion to your insight.

From Selling from the Heart’s authenticity principles, the most powerful sales process in the world won’t make up for a salesperson who hasn’t done the internal work.

This is why I believe that reflection is your most undervalued sales activity. It’s not time wasted, its time invested.

Ten quiet minutes in honest self-assessment can often yield more revenue impact than another hour of cold calls, because it sharpens the instrument that makes all your strategies work, and that is you.

Here’s what many overlook:

• Self-Reflection yields self-awareness - Time in the mirror without ego or excuse creates the ability to see yourself and your impact clearly.

• Self-Awareness yields authentic action - When you know who you are and what you stand for, your actions naturally align with your values, creating congruence that others can feel.

• Authentic Action yields sustainable growth - Trust accelerates, opportunities multiply. The growth you achieve isn’t a short-lived spike, its steady, compounding, and built on a foundation no market shift can shake.

The better you get at leading yourself, the less you’ll have to chase success because it will start looking for you.

Six Questions to Start Your Inner Growth Journey

If you’re ready to turn the mirror into your map, then be willing to answer these questions:

1. What’s my purpose beyond the quota? Strip away the numbers for a moment, why do you really do this work, and who do you want to impact?

2. Where am I pretending and why? Identify the masks you wear to fit in, impress, or protect yourself. Ask what it’s costing you to keep them on.

3. How do I define authenticity in my work? Clarity here becomes your compass. Without it, you risk drifting into someone else’s version of success.

4. What feedback do I tend to dismiss and what might it be teaching me? Often, the feedback we resist the most is the insight we need the most.

5. Which habits no longer serve the person I want to become? Some habits once helped you survive but may now be holding you back from thriving.

6. What one courageous conversation do I need to have with myself? The hardest truths to face are usually the ones that unlock the most growth.

If you're up for the task, then write these in your journal. Answer them honestly, review them monthly; not just to track progress, but to notice patterns.

Over time, you’ll see how each honest answer tightens the link between who you are and how you show up. All of this becomes the fuel that turns stillness into momentum, and momentum into sustainable success.

Final Thought... The World Doesn’t Need More Sales Tactics, It Needs More You.

The sales profession doesn’t need more automation or AI; it needs more authenticity.

Leaders, your people don’t need another motivational quote, what they need to see you model is the courage, consistency, and care you talk about.

Salespeople, your clients don’t want another polished pitch, they want a human being they can trust with their challenges, goals, and ambitions.

Guess what? None of that happens if you’re not willing to first go within. You are the engine of your own growth.

Growth starts in the quiet moments, when you choose reflection over distraction, honesty over image, and self-leadership over blame. The more you refine what’s inside, the more magnetic you become on the outside.

So, look inside and do the work. The world doesn’t just need another salesperson, it needs you. The real you, the one that can’t be automated, imitated, or mass-produced.

This might be the time to go look in the mirror and start asking yourself the hard questions.

Originally published on Larry Levine's LinkedIn.